This invention related generally to the field of muscular evaluation related to the human anatomy and more particularly to an improved apparatus and method for evaluating the strength of selected muscle groups for diagnostic purposes, particularly related to column disorders.
The prior art has developed numerous muscle measuring or testing devices, but to date little progress has been made toward the development of an operably dependable device for use by the medical profession in diagnosing muscle disorders. In point of fact, the recommended procedure for measuirng muscle efficiency remains in a relative primitive state of "hands on" evaluation in which the patient exerts muscular force against the examiner's resistance, or resistance against movement performed by the examiner. Thus, initial diagnosis as well as evaluation of subsequent test results depends on the examining physician's memory and impression of the patient's muscular abilities. Such subjective recall is not scientifically reliable.
Exercise devices also have been employed to evaluate dynamic muscle activity, but these measure the force exerted by one or more groups of muscles as opposed to individual or selected muscles. Further such exercise devices require the patient to actively participate under physical stress which is not always a reasonable requirement, especially if the patient is injured or otherwise physically impared.
A further important and practical consideration to solving the problem of diagnostic muscle evaluation is the capability of duplicating the testing conditions from time to time in order to arrive at comparative test results. Most prior developed devices for this purpose have failed to provide this capability with any acceptable certainty and as a result, test results have been subject to error.